“At least I tried to talk sense into him,” Smith said as they followed Marcus out in single file. He shrugged. “But since he’s clearly a basket case over her, we might as well get a good seat for the show.”

* * *

“Nicola, I can’t keep doing this.”

She looked up from the conversation he’d interrupted between the women with extreme alarm on her pretty face.

Marcus knew she didn’t want him to out their relationship in front of his entire family, but he couldn’t keep pretending he didn’t know her. He couldn’t keep acting like he didn’t love her. And he sure as hell couldn’t stand to listen to Smith talk about her so dismissively, like she was nothing more than a hot piece of ass.

Marcus wanted everyone to see her the way he did—as a smart, focused, brilliant artist and businesswoman. And a truly beautiful person, inside and out.

So what if he didn’t fit into her world and she didn’t fit into his?

How could he give her up?

She was shaking her head, her eyes desperate as she silently begged him to stop talking. But he couldn’t stop now, knew he had to get it all out before another second passed where she didn’t think he loved her.

He moved to her, pulled her up out of her seat.

“No, Marcus.” She looked wildly around at his family, who were now all assembled in their seats at the table, their faces pressed up to the invisible glass. Hell, knowing them, they all wished they had bowls of popcorn to munch from. But he didn’t care. Nothing mattered now but Nicola.

And the fact that he was going to lose her if he didn’t do something quick.

“Don’t. Please don’t.”

Maybe if he’d gotten more sleep, he would have been able to see how serious she was, that his declaration was the last thing she wanted right now. But in that moment, all Marcus knew was how right it felt to touch her, to be close to her.

“I love you."

She backed away from him and would have stumbled on a tree root in the grass if he hadn’t been gripping her hands in his.

“Please don’t do this. Not here. Not now.” Her words were barely a whisper, but the backyard was so deadly silent, with not even a bird chirping or a breeze to sound through the trees, that everyone heard her plea loud and clear.

“I should have told you before. I was a fool to let you go, to let you believe I didn’t love you, too.”

Nicola was trying to pull her hands from his and clearly wanted nothing more than to escape. But he couldn’t let her go, not without making her face what was between them.

Marcus knew there were a million different ways he could have done this better, but right now there was nothing left for him to do but pull her against him and kiss her...in front of his whole family.

Her body was stiff against his, her mouth tight and closed. But then, their connection took over despite the fact that she clearly wanted to fight him, and the passion neither of them had ever been able to hold back from each other came crashing through. They kissed each other like it had been years since their mouths had touched instead of twenty-four hours.

Abruptly, Nicola shoved at his chest, knocking him away from her. Both of her hands were clamped over her mouth and her eyes were wide with horror.

Nicola turned in the general direction of his family. “I’m sorry I ruined your lunch,” she said in a broken voice, then turned and ran toward the house.

Marcus had never put his heart out on the line to anyone like that before, only to have it returned sliced and diced into tiny little pieces. His pride told him to let Nicola go, that he hadn’t needed her before and he didn’t need her now.

At least this time he knew enough to tell his pride to go straight to hell.

A heartbeat later, Marcus Sullivan was chasing down the pop star who had stolen his heart.

* * *

“Wait a minute,” Lori said in the wake of Marcus’s departure. “What just happened here?”

Her twin snorted. “Seriously, are you still the only one who’s completely clueless? Can’t you pay attention to anyone’s life but your own for three seconds?”

Before Lori could turn around and jump down her twin’s throat, Zach said, “Looked to me like Marcus just completely blew it.” He shook his head, looking less than impressed. “Man, that was messy.”

“It might not end up being quite so funny when it happens to you,” his mother told him with a pointed arch of one eyebrow.

“No chance,” Ryan said. “The rest of us are perfectly content to leave love out of it.”

Knowing it would irk his siblings, Chase said, “Not all of us,” then planted a big wet kiss on Chloe’s lips. She laughed and kissed him back.

“I just don’t understand,” Lori said. “When did Marcus and Jill break up?”

Speaking as if she were addressing a two-year-old, Sophie told Lori, “I guess he finally dumped her and now he’s in love with Nico.”

“He says her name is really Nicola,” Smith pointed out and Sophie shot him a death glare.

“As I was saying, the only problem is that she doesn’t seem to be in love with him.”

Gabe’s radio went off suddenly, a loud shrill noise that couldn’t be missed, along with a quick burst of information about the situation that they all listened in on as he turned the volume up.

He was already standing and pushing away from the table before the fire dispatcher stopped speaking. “Sorry to eat and run, especially when we’ve just gotten to the good stuff.”